Which way do ceiling joists run in garage

I would like to install ceiling shelves in my garage. However I have a textured ceiling - it's not acoustical texture - more or less it looks like a wavy ceiling. It is also very thick so its nearly impossible to find a seam.

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In which direction should ceiling joists be laid?
Which direction should I run my joists?
Which way do Studs run in a ceiling?

I had done research on this and a couple of ideas were- get a piece of cardboard and run your stud finder along the cardboard - the other idea is drill small holes in ceiling til you hit a stud- and lastly is to measure 16" from one side of the wall to the other. Has anyone ever tried any of these and what worked best for you?

isherwood

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asked Apr 12, 2017 at 17:57

Studfinders should work fine regardless of texture. Most have a deep scan mode for such situations, but I'd be surprised if that's even necessary.

If that's really not working, look for clues. Your overhead door is probably suspended from ceiling joists. You may have an outlet or light boxes attached to them as well. You may find nails in exterior fascia indicating rafter tail location.

Most modern truss systems are 24" on center. Older hand-framed roofs are likely 16" on center. Once you find one you should have them all.

answered Apr 12, 2017 at 18:09

isherwoodisherwood

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Your curling is probably wavy because you have 1/2" drywall over 24" OC (on center) joists. The finished curling was not originally installed when your house was built. If it was planned for it would probably be 5/8" drywall over 16"OC joists. More support and more rigid drywall that way resists warping.

So to find your joists try using a magnet at on end of your ceiling. When it sticks to a nail or screw make a mark. Then go to the opposite end and do the same. Now snap a chalk line (a chalk box is an inexpensive hand tool found at any hardware store) or use a long straight edge to scribe a pencil line from your first mark to the second mark. As long as your mark the exact or close as possible location of the screws or nails under the mud or texture you will be marking the center of the stud and you won't have to worry about measuring 5/8" out for edge of joist.

You can do this for all your joists or just the adjacent joist and hopefully the two joist locations will tell you the basic layout of your joists--either 24" OC or 16"OC. Then just measure over every 16 or 24 inches. This will give you most of your joist locations.

There may be an extra one here and there or a cross member you might be able to utilize in your installation. Remember the direction of your joists is usually in the direction of the shortest distance. It makes for a stronger structure if you have the shortest framing members rather than longer ones.

isherwood

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answered Apr 14, 2017 at 0:20

Does anyone have any idea on what's the best way to find our garage ceiling joist? We have dry wall, hat/isolation channels and then the joists. The air between the drywall and the joist is giving us false readings on our scanner. We need to find the joist so we can install garage racks. Here's a picture of what it might be similar to except just imagine the isolation channels and the joist running perpendicular to each other. We have tried using a Zircon stud finder with deep scan with no luck. Any help would be appreciated. The house was built in 2006 and located in Southern California.

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Drill bit, tape measure. Drill 15 1/2 inches from the gable end wall. You might get lucky. Drill a series of holes if you are not.

Go to the outside of the garage, and see if you can figure out where the rafter tails are. Ceiling joists are usually on one side or the other.

Figure out where your wall studs are, and see if the rafters are stacked.

Cut an inspection hole. Make it the right size to cover with a blank electrical box cover. Probe around. install drop in box and blank cover.

Last edited: Nov 4, 2013

You could try a FLIR camera. Many of the better insulation contractors and home inspectors have them. The dense wood will give a different heat signature behind the drywall and it will show up on the camera screen.

Do you have any outlets or lights installed in the ceiling that you can peek through to see where they are?

except just imagine the isolation channels and the joist running perpendicular to each other.

Not sure I understand this.

If you have attic access to the joists you can do this.

Go to Lowe's, Home Depot, etc and buy a long "aviation" drill bit. Smallest diameter they have. Go up into the attic and note your on center joist spacing (16", 24", etc). Also check for consistency in spacing and note any variations.

With the drill bit oriented vertically and aligned tightly on the side of the joist drill through the sheet rock. You may want to drill two widely spaced holes along the same joist. Working from these reference holes you should be able to locate all of the joists.

I would drill the reference holes as close to planned rack location(s) as possible. They can be filled with Spackle when you are done.

Thank you to everyone. We already did the the small inspection hatch and located joists (found them every 24"). I just wondered if there was any easier way to go about it besides drilling with the smaller bit. I heard good stuff about the Franklin Sensor but haven't gotten a chance to try it.

HAP

Well-known member

Sharp ice pick. No drill dust, easy to fill...

If you have attic access over the garage... go up there and
do some measuring. You could use ceiling lights or outlets as
a reference point.

Either that or use an awl to poke a hole through the drywall
from the attic side right beside one of the joists. From that
reference you can measure out where the others are.

Nope, no attic access. Found one and started measuring away. Nothing that Spackle can't fix.

If there is some sort of trim piece between the wall and ceiling, you could remove a section of that...then you can root around and find a couple of joists and figure out the spacing. I suspect this is not what you are looking for...but I don't know of any sort of scanner which could find them in your situation.

Kev

One of our suppliers brought one by a few months back that would find rebar in a concrete bridge deck. I've never looked for anything like you need, but pretty sure if they can make a device to find rebar through concrete, something exists out there.

You might check with commercial construction supply houses and/or equipment rental stores.

Would any of this be cheaper/faster than some of the basic methods already mentioned? Doubtful.

Buy a telescopic magnet tool from Home depot or Lowe's. Look where is mounted your garage door motor. Now with the magnet tool search at a foot distance for a nails. Once when you find one, mark it. Now look forward, parallel to the door. You'll get another nail-mark it too. Connect both marks and this is your joist. The other joists are parallel to this one.

In which direction should ceiling joists be laid?

They must be at the same spacing and in the same direction as the main rafters so they can be fixed to, and act as ties between the feet of opposing rafter pairs.

Which direction should I run my joists?

Which direction do ceiling joists run? Ceiling joists can run in any direction, and it is often very difficult to tell which way they are running without being able to see them. There are often visual clues. It is most common for them to run across the short dimension of a room, but this is not always the case.

Which way do Studs run in a ceiling?

For floors, they will typically run across the shorter width of the room. With ceilings that have rafters, they typically run parallel to the rafters.